The Rich Less Likely To Support Raising Minimum Wage

The guy who whipped your Bojangles' biscuits? He doesn't have any paid sick days. The woman who served your dynamite shrimp at The Cheesecake Factory? She earns less than $5 an hour before tips. Working conditions in America's restaurants are notoriously lousy, and according to a new survey, diners actually care -- although rich diners care significantly less.

ORC International conducted the survey of over 1,000 American adults on behalf of the National Consumers League, a nonprofit advocacy group for consumers. And the findings are clear: People want restaurant workers to get fair wages, all their tips, and paid sick days.

But while college-educated Americans may have read more books on class and injustice, and higher-earning Americans might have more wealth to share, lower-income and less-educated Americans are far more compassionate towards their servers -- perhaps for the same reason that lower-income households give a greater percentage of their income to charity.

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Eighty-seven percent of Americans think the federal tipped minimum wage of $2.13 an hour should go up, even though the number hasn't budged for 22 years. Restaurant servers earn an average of $8.72 an hour, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, or $18,130 a year, making it one of the lowest paying jobs on American soil (and almost $3,000 less than retail workers).

But of respondents with a high school education or less, 90 percent thought the minimum wage should go up, compared to 80 percent of college grads.

And of people from households earning less than $75,000 a year, 85 percent considered it important that the whole tip they left went to their servers, compared to 71 percent of those making more.

The survey found that just 57 percent of Americans want their servers to receive paid sick days, though almost two out of three without college degrees favored it versus just one out of two college grads. It was women who cared about sick days most of all -- 66 percent, compared to 48 percent of men.

As it stands, 90 percent of restaurant workers report not having that benefit, according to 2011 research by The Restaurant Opportunities Centers United, an advocacy group for low wage restaurant workers. The vast majority of our nation's mightiest chains force workers to surrender a day's wages if they're sick, including Arby's, Cracker Barrel, California Pizza Kitchen, Domino's Pizza, Hard Rock Cafe, IHOP, T.G.I. Friday's, and Outback Steakhouse.

The upscale steakhouse chain Capital Grille not only doesn't make the cut as a "high road" restaurant, according to the Restaurant Opportunities Centers United. Not only has at least half of its current employees never been promoted, and information on its wages and sick days were mysteriously unavailable. "I was never offered a raise in the two years I was employed," one employee gripes on Glassdoor.com.

But Capital Grille gets a big fat frowny face in ROC United's report, because Capital Grille employees have actually sought out the help of ROC United for wage theft and discrimination. Employees in five states actually served the restaurant a lawsuit earlier this year, claiming that non-white employees were relegated to back-of-the-house duties, away from the eyes of customers, because only whites were supposedly seen to cultivate the desired high-end image.

"We continue to believe these allegations are baseless," Darden spokesman Rich Jeffers said. However, as with any claims of impropriety, we will investigate them thoroughly."

Olive Garden's tipped workers make less than $5 an hour an average, according to the ROC United report, and its non-tipped workers less than $9. And if they get sick, they have to give up those measly wages to take a day off. But that's not the worst part of working at Olive Garden, apparently. Its employees have also called up ROC United because of alleged wage theft and discrimination issues.

Some employees make decent pay at the country's favorite pseudo-Italian date spot. A person who claimed to be an Olive Garden manager posted to the anonymous online forum Reddit that he took home $55,000 a year, plus benefits. "... but the toll it takes on you mentally is ridic," he wrote. "10 hour shifts, on your feet all day. Dealing with a--holes. Yeah, you get to see a lot of hot chicks, but most of them are on dates with some douchebag who can't afford to take his girl to a more expensive dinner."

You also have to deal with a lot of people coming in for the free breadsticks, and then making a run for it.

Casual crustacean-dining chain Red Lobster scored a whopping zero in every ROC category. Unlivable wages. No paid sick days. Poor opportunities for advancement. "No chance of working up to higher positions," wrote one Red Lobster server on Glassdoor.com. But ROC United has also helped out Red Lobster employees, at their request, on legal charges against their employer.

It isn't the first time that Red Lobster employees have enlisted the help of the law. In 2005, more than 40,000 current and former workers at California Red Lobsters and Olive Gardens (they share the same parent company) got a piece of a $9.5 million pie after accusing the chain of denying them breaks and of forcing them to purchase their own uniforms. Although it made a huge settlement, Red Lobster did not admit fault in the case.

The reviews of working at LongHorn Steakhouse on Indeed.com are mixed. Some employees laud the benefits and training. Others say things like, "Terrible management, promises of advancement, but no follow-through, long hours, no breaks, the epitome of overworked & underpaid."

ROC United has few kind words for the chain, which has no paid sick days, according to the report. Information on its wages and advancement opportunities were apparently impossible to come by. But ROC United does know for the sure that LongHorn workers have contacted them, asking their legal help because of wage theft and discrimination. No lawsuit has been filed yet, and LongHorn's parent company Darden has largely dismissed ROC United's allegations.

For a list of the 43 other big national chain restaurants with horrible working conditions, according to ROC United, click here. If you prefer a cheerier read, click here to find the seven restaurants that the group says are great places to work.

Raising minimum wage helps the rich more than it helps the poor. CIP - I used to work at McDs for 3.35/hr. I worked harder than others and received enough raises that I then made 4.15/hr. Then, min wage went up to 4.25/hr. Everyone below min wage got a raise, which brought me up to 4.25/hr so I was making the same as everyone else. Do people think it would work differently? Do they believe that I would have received 5.15/hr even though the law only required 4.25/hr? Even as I advanced up the ladder and received more raises, I was closer to min wage than I would have been if min wage were still at 3.35/hr.Meanwhile, the owner/operator did two things. He kept the same labor % goal, meaning that the now-higher-paid employees had less help and worked less hours. He also raised the menu prices. In the end, he maid a higher profit. So, as it turns out the rich are smart enough to get what they want and everyone else becomes closer to minimum wage. Today, I make much more than I did back then but if min wage goes up, my pay will stay the same (closer to mi wage (again)).

In my life the minimum wage has been raised many times. Costs just go up with it and no one is better off. The only way to do better is to change what you do for a living.A smart poor person gets all kinds of government aide to go to school, others join the military and learn a trade, etc. My father came to this country a poor man. He worked at anything he could find, often working over 80 hours a week. He eventually started his own business. He did well, but the main lesson he taught us was to shut up and work. We did well too. We live in a country where you are limited only in what you believe you can do.

By the way, my father was dark and didn't speak English with a "preferred" foreign accent. So, if you don't like your life change it.

Would Americans please lose the words, "That being said" from their speech? It's redundant, boring, and stupid. Of course, it was said! You said it, DUH! After years of waiting tables I can tell you with some authority this is true. The wealthiest are often the cheapest tippers (they got rich by being cheap, did they not?) and the rudest. Example: Cher is not only rude as h*ll to wait-persons but also tight with her dough. Next on the hit parade are people with screaming, bratty kids. I had a table of 8 once who ran me ragged and left a few pennies. Maybe people don't know waitpersons work for so little money. Maybe they don't know waitpersons walk through grease, stand on hard floors, lift heavy objects, get sneezed/coughed/and god-knows-what-else-on, are talked to like dogs (or worse, people love their dogs), and have managers scream at them while grabbing asses and firing the ones who don't comply.

That being said. I do believe that the servers wage has got to be increased. It has been stagnant for 22 years. Not raise the minimum wage, just the servers wage. Where are the Democrats on this one?!!!! Oh, thats right, the union members wages arent tied to the servers wages. Sorry servers, cant garner any votes by raising their wage. Its about getting votes, not actually helping someone. What say you liberals?

I say the server wage issue is just one issue, and a smaller one at that. The overarching issue is that wealthy people can't comprehend the difficulty that the majority of americans have in just getting by. Prices continue to rise, business continues to always reap greater profits, yet our average real wage level has been flat since 1972. What say you, conservative. What is the psychology behind 1) the 'I've got mine, the hell with the rest of you' mentality of many, many wealthy people? or 2) that many wealthy people believe they are entitled to benefits (see Tax codes for example), the rest of the 'unwashed' do not receive. What is the mindset of such people, when those with so much less, are more likely to give, on a percentage basis, more of their money to help others? What say you Conservative?. I say that while many( but not ALL of course) wealthy people view themselves as 'better' than the other 97% of us simply because of having some cash, they are, in actuality inferior human beings. Lower on the psycho-emotional and social development ladder than the rest of us. Selfishness, greed and the FEAR of SHARING any kind of power(see money) causes them to use wealth/power to legislate imediments to the financial development of the great majority of the population. That is what I say.

Three points - Server wages have not been stagnant. Most of their income comes from tips, which are a percentage of the bill. Menu prices have increased dramatically in 22 years.Many union workers are tied to minimum wage. If min wage goes up so do their salaries. A privilege that most of us don't share.There needs to be a motivation for working your way out of those server-jobs. A higher wage elsewhere is that motivation.

Since nearly 91% of all "rich" people worked their way to where they are and only a small percent inherited their wealth shows that you know nothing of what people can do with themselves. How is it someone can come to our shores with no more than a few dollars in their pocket and still end up being well to do? If you are willing to come up with what people need or want, risk all that you own to make it work, and are willing to work at least 80 hours a week, then you can also "inherit" a large sum of money.

Yeah, why don't these "poor" folks just get out there and inherent a fortune like most rich people today did? Bet the Walmart heirs (5 of the top ten riches folks in the world) don't whine about the minimum wage -- they "understand how the economy works" based on how hard they worked to get where they are today.